Spring Ramblings

Wow!  Who would've thought that full time work and school makes it difficult to write blog posts?

Anyhow; I realize it's been far too long again, and believe it or not, I have two posts that are all but ready to go up, one on *redacted* and one on evolutionary taxonomy.  I think both are good, and with any luck, they will appear soon.  In the meanwhile, I wanted to just run through some things I learned this year in the realm of gardening.

I have always wanted to help people with gardening tips, but never really have, so here are a couple small things that I learned this year that might help people out.

First off, I learned that Sarracenia really can't take prolonged cold very well.  Oregon had an unusually cold winter this year (which was great at knocking down our aphid population) and besides my Sarracenia purpurea, which grows quite far north compared to other North American pitchers, most of them don't handle a week at 20 degrees Fahrenheit very well.  Many of them will, in fact, totally croak if you have 2 weeks at 20 degrees F.  I learned this with a very painful lesson.  So for you carnivore enthusiasts out there: For the love of your beautiful plants, either mulch them or bring them in during weather like that.  I will eternally regret not doing that.  I lost nearly 2/3rds of my collection to cold this winter, and I lost all of my Venus Fly Traps.  Don't let it happen to you!

Pitcher plants in Canada?!  Madness!

Second off, I learned that, if you are a madman (or madwoman) and decide to get a community garden plot (Most people are good with them, but I learned that I don't have the patience to go out every day to keep track of mine, that's another story though), you should try to get some coffee grounds from Starbucks.  They are amazing for free soil, and though they are a bit on the acidic side, most garden plants love slight soil acidity.  Ask your favorite Starbucks(es) for coffee grounds, they would probably be happy to oblige.  Fair warning, it stinks.  I love the smell of coffee, I hated the smell of the discarded grounds.

So there are my gardening tips.  Take them to heart young gardeners!

Coming up, I really will try to be a bit better at this whole bloggy thing.